Harry Reid super-committee picks in place

In the first of what will be a closely watched selection process for a powerful new deficit panel, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced he will appoint Democratic Sens. Patty Murray of Washington, Max Baucus of Montana and John Kerry of Massachusetts as his three choices for a super committee charged with finding more than $1 trillion in spending cuts by the end of this year.

Murray will serve as co-chairwoman of the 12-member panel. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will select a member to co-chair the committee and two other panelists, as required by the debt-limit agreement signed into law by President Barack Obama last week. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will each select three additional members.

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POLITICO 44

“The Joint Select Committee has been charged with forging the balanced, bipartisan approach to deficit reduction that the American people, the markets and rating agencies like Standard & Poor’s are demanding,” Reid said in a statement. “To achieve that goal, I have appointed three senators who each posses an expertise in budget matters, a commitment to a balanced approach and a track record of forging bipartisan consensus.”

Reid’s three picks are loyal to the majority leader and are intended to show the Nevada Democrat is serious about forging a bipartisan deal to head off $1.2 trillion in spending cuts required under the debt deal. The super committee was Reid’s contribution to the bipartisan agreement to end the debt-limit fight.

A senior appropriator and Budget Committee member, Murray is also the chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which has made the GOP’s focus on overhauling Medicare a centerpiece of the 2012 campaign. Baucus is the chairman of the powerful Finance Committee, while Kerry — the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee — has been lobbying for a spot.

But the choice of Murray has already spawned anger from Republicans, who called it a blatantly political move aimed at filling coffers for the Democratic campaign committee. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called on Reid to withdraw the appointment immediately.

“The select committee is no place for someone whose top priority is fundraising and politics,” Priebus said.

Reid and Pelosi had been considering whether to install candidates who will draw a hard-line against deep entitlement cuts, particularly if Republicans don’t bend on new taxes. The Democratic leaders want loyalists who won’t give the panel majority support for a cuts-only approach, which could target popular programs like Medicare and Social Security.

“The No. 1 criteria should be someone who fights for revenues, and if Republicans continue to rule out revenues, then the Democrats have to play proper defense in response,” said a senior Democratic aide.
In a joint statement, Kerry, Baucus and Murray said they are serious about answering the call to “step beyond partisanship and politics” and achieve a “balanced, pragmatic and practical” solution to the soaring national debt.

In an email sent to her colleagues Monday evening, Pelosi said her caucus is committed to “protecting” Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — and said that the new panel should deliberate in public settings so that it achieves a “balanced” approach to deficit reduction.

“Many of you have expressed your interest in serving on the joint committee,” Pelosi told her colleagues. “I have and will be reaching out to each of you before making any decision.”

Senator Kerry believes that anyone in America that wants a balanced budget is a terrorist. Strange pick. Senator Kerry also demands taxes on others but does not pay his own. Kerry had a beautiful yacht built for himself in New Zealand (no - he didn't use American boat builders), and then docked this yacht in Rhode Island instead of his home State of Massachusetts so he could avoid the high taxes in his own State. Don't know if this is a good pick. Demanding taxes of others - and escaping them yourself, contracting out-of-Country boat builders & ignoring American workers and then calling people terrorists because they want a balanced budget is very disturbing.

How about we tax Kerry and every other wealthy, tax dodging Liberal in America? Hear that Rangle & TIMMAH? Take every last cent they have and give the money to crack heads. After that we can go after the Industrialists and other job creators and do the same thing. That should fund America for about a year. After that, there will be no more money and nobody producing any jobs as business and the economy are completely destroyed. But at least we'll have accomplished "soaking the rich!"

I can't believe Reid chose Baucus. What an absolutely horrible choice. It was Baucus who squandered all of that time during the health care debate trying to get the Republicans to join. The Republicans never had any intention of supporting health care and as soon as Sen. Grassley got back to Iowa, he started talking about death panels a la Sarah Palin. They ran the clock out on the debate and then complained that Democrats were spending too much time on health care.

So will Baucus repeat that and run the clock out and then cave to the Republicans? This is not going to end well.

Kerry will now come face to face and have to try to work with people he just called "TERRORISTS!!!!" that must be "SILENCED!!!" because they didn't happen to agree with his every utterance. Yeah, this is gonna work out real well....

I don't know anything about Senator Baucus, but Senators Murray and Kerry HAD to be picked for being the dumbest and most Leftist senators in the caucus. If those two have a brain cell between them, I would be very surprised.

It is insane the way the Democrats continue to frame this debate: Democrats want to raise taxes and Republicans want to cut spending.... Doesn't any one working for the Democrats have media sense? The Republicans are going to appoint far right politicians who will do exactly what their 1% puppeteers tell them to do. The super wealthy and powerful want more and they have a Republican party eager to do their bidding. $1.5 trillion more in cuts... to community health care centers, medicare, social security, lots of other programs that all kinds of people expect from a reasonable government. But Democrats continue to allow themselves to painted as big spending "libruls" who want to take money away from Joe the Plumber. Get a grip, people and start standing up for the other 99% of America. If they get jobs and a little bite of the apple, in the end it might be better for the top 1% as well. If it all continues to go to the top 1%, the bottom 99% is going to collapse.

geezerpk - "Baucus makes me nervous — he sold out too much in the health care debate when I thought going in he would be one of the real champions."

The man is from MONTANA. Were you expecting to come out swinging for single payer?

As a pragmatic liberal myself, I find Max to be a good guy, and in the end he got us health care reform. It is a conservative approach, but it gets most everyone under the access umbrella in one way or another, which was a stunning achievement in modern center-right dominated politics.

"""Boycott, refrain from using or patronizing any of the businesses on this list. And if you ever plan a trip to Nevada do not patronize any of the Casino's on this list. I suggest you copy this list of donors and post it all over the internet. The way to bring this scumbag down is by cutting off his money. Cut off the money and the rat dies!"""